Many parents have said to me that their child will only eat french fries and macaroni and cheese. Really? That is all they eat? Your child looks slightly overweight to me. If that was all my child would eat, my child would starve to death because I would not feed it to them often enough to sustain them. How often are you allowing them to eat french fries and macaroni and cheese? Are you really afraid your child will refuse to eat healthy food choices long enough to cause damage to their growth? Having worked in other cultures than America, I can say with confidence that children will eat whatever you provide them to eat. If macaroni is always in the cabinet and your child knows that he or she can complain long enough and you will make it, the child will only eat macaroni not because "it is all they will eat" but because it is what you provide. Stop providing these foods as options to your child. As a parent, you must provide healthy options and the child can choose to eat it or not. Skipping a few meals is not going to damage your child in any way. In fact, it may greatly benefit their health as they begin to branch out with their food choices.

A common misconception is that a vegetarian diet means a healthy diet. Unfortunately, many times this is not the case. Americans have a skewed view of Asian diets thinking that they are much healthier diets because they consume less meat and processed foods. Although these facts are true, their overall diets tend to be less balanced than a healthy American diet. Eating rice for every meal as the main source of calories creates a high in carbohydrate diet many times lacking in adequate amounts of fruits, vegetables, and protein. A common Indian dish is rice with potatoe curry. Starch with starch and some oil and spices. Despite that this dish tastes delicious, nothing about it is balanced and ilacks many needed nutrients. Next time someone tries to convince you that a vegetarian diet is the healthiest diet, ask them about balance and variety of foods. Don't esteeme the Asian diet as the healthiest diet. They typically are less obese due to their poverty rather than healthy diet. The wealthier the Asian, typically the wider their belt.